This disclosure relates to radio frequency communications systems and methods including, for example, transferring information from one location to another through the use of atmospheric modification, and creating an environment for data transmissions to be isotropically repeated from or to one or more distant locations within line-of-sight.
Typical methods for manipulating the atmosphere may include: acoustic manipulation, gyro-resonance manipulation, radio frequency manipulation, visible and non-visible light spectrum manipulation, etc. While there may be several methods for manipulating the atmosphere, in order to transfer information from one location to another, radio frequency (RF) and LASER induced atmospheric manipulation are currently among the most prevalent methods.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,134,715, 4,999,637, U.S. 2007/0215946, U.S. 2007/0238252, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,053,783, and 5,041,834, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference as if fully disclosed herein, describe the use of artificially ionized atmosphere for the purpose of refracting radio frequency signals from one location to another location.
Other methods may include the use of optical images in the atmosphere to be observed at another distant location for information transfer from one location to another location. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,533,995, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference as if fully disclosed herein, describes the use of LASERs for forming a visible image in the atmosphere. In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,286,766, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference as if fully disclosed herein, describes the use of a “laser guide star” with modulated light, in order to create a free-space optical communications link. Other examples include the use of LASERs for irradiating the atmosphere for astronomy or communications purposes. However, the primary limitation of the optical communications method is its lack of all-weather reliability over long distances.
The conventional methods for telecommunication systems described above require the using physical satellites for telecommunications. Moreover, a user of the conventional systems does not have the ability to employ these conventional systems and methods in the locations and altitudes of their choosing based on the user's unique requirements, as the physical satellites, required by these conventional systems are bound to orbital mechanics.